Quote:After rumors popped up last Monday that the PS3 may be in store for a new price cut, Sony was quick to shoot it down. However, more reports have been coming in that indicate Sony is doing SOMETHING funky with their PS3 lineup. Major retailers across the country have reportedly been receiving notices from Sony to discontinue selling the 80GB model. BestBuy.com has even removed the 80GB PS3 from their website, listing only the 40GB PS3. Target.com has changed the 80GB PS3 to ‘available in stores only’.

This leads to two situations - either the 80GB bundle is being revamped or its being discontinued altogether. The 80GB bundle with Motorstorm was originally supposed to be a ‘limited time offer’. Also, in both Europe and Japan, the 40GB model is the only model actively produced. Making only one PS3 model would go the long way in simplifying the PS3 lineup, which has confused consumers to no end.

Many have argued that Sony would be stupid to do this, as then there would not be a PS3 with PS2 compatibility(all PS3s can play PS1 games). However, as stated before, the US is the only market where a PS3 with PS2 compatibility is still actively produced. Sony has indicated that the majority of its consumers were least interested in a function that allowed them to play PS2 games. Going by sales numbers of Motorstorm, this may be correct - the 40GB PS3 regularly outsold the 80GB PS3 all throughout the holiday months, perhaps indicating that the majority of the consumers are buying the PS3 for PS3 games or Blu Ray playback, not PS2 games. Additionally, Kotaku reported that Sony is still looking to implement PS2 compatibility in the 40GB PS3 through software emulation, which means that the 40GB could possibly be able to play PS2 games at some point.